According to the latest reports leaking out of the increasingly leak-prone NFL lockout discussions an ominous caveat could come with any deal done in time to bring the 2011 regular season forward without a hitch: Even more Thursday night games on the NFL Network, the channel so unpopular that your sports bar recently decided to carry PAX TV instead.
For a sport so devoted to its routines and the sound of its routines--Sunday and Monday Night Football are so euphonious, and the idea of waking up Sunday and watching football all day so built into the sport's appeal--Thursday Night Football has always been a glaringly obvious, painfully awkward bend in the direction of commerce. Even on something other than the NFL Network, an unlikely prospect, there would still be the matter of attempting to psyche oneself up for a random game between two potentially interesting teams with no history or even muscle-memory built up.
Consigning eight more games to the most unwatchable channel this side of the Pieces of Metal Scraping Against Each Other, and There's Rust In There, Too Network is a tough price to pay, but if it keeps those games from being canceled entirely there are worse fates.